Should Be Dead
by Tsukikami Moyizawa
Summary: What if Kanda were the one to die, and Alma had become the exorcist? What if they had been unable to save Yu from his wounds and Alma repents? What if who should have died doesn't and who shouldn't have does?


"There's no way around it. We have to euthanize him."

Alma's eyes grew wide, and he pressed his ear against the door harder. What were they thinking?

"Edgar! How could you even think about doing that? He's just a child!"

"He's a weapon, and he is going to turn against us if he remembers much more. We cannot afford to let that happen."

"He is a human child. Let me take care of him, I'll make sure he doesn't turn on us."

"Not an option. He's too strong. He'd kill you, and then everyone else."  
>"You cannot kill him!"<p>

"And sit back and watch him kill all of us? I don't think so."

"He's only nine years old. Technically, not even that. Edgar, we have a son close to that age! Would you kill Bak if he were a threat? We're not even sure this child is a threat yet!"

"You don't know what you're talking about! If you aren't going to do it, give me the syringe and I will!"

Alma heard a lid slam. "Take it. But let me help him fall asleep first. The least I can do for him is make sure he doesn't feel it."

Alma ran back to their room where he found Yu sitting on a table, carving Japanese characters into the wood with a small pocket knife. He jumped on the table behind him, tackling him. Yu swore viciously. Where had he even learned those words?  
>"Yu, you have to get out of here. Now. Go! Leave!" Alma started pushing him, but he resisted. "Why? What the heck is wrong with you, Alma? Get off me!"<p>

Alma heard the click of Twi Chang's heels on the floor in the hallway. She cracked open the door and stepped inside, shutting it softly behind her. She turned with sad eyes to look at the two boys fighting. "Alma, go outside and play with Fo. She's getting bored by herself," she instructed. Alma didn't dare argue. If he argued, he'd only make it worse. There was still a chance that Dr. Twi might talk Dr. Edgar out of it. He stood up and walked slowly out the door, looking back once at the dark-haired boy sitting on the table, arms crossed.

When Alma shut the door, Twi walked over to Yu, who glared at her, defiant. "It's time for you to get some rest, Yu. Those synchro tests were pretty hard on you this morning," she said softly. He grunted. "I'm not tired. I'm fine." She sat down on the table next to him, and rubbed his back. His scowl hardened, but he didn't resist. "Nonetheless you need your sleep. Alma didn't have any synchro tests today, that's why he gets to go play with Fo," she told him quietly. "Come here."

Yu yawned and realized he was pretty tired. She wasn't kidding when she said those tests had been hard that morning. They had hurt, probably the worst yet. Yu was sick of it. So he crawled over to her, and she gathered him into her arms, stroking his silky hair. He rested his head on her chest and closed his eyes. She sang him the lullaby she had been singing the entire time he'd been with her.

_Lay down, my child_

_Let your fears go_

_Believe that you will be saved_

_May you know_

_That all your struggles_

_Will all fall away._

_Just sleep _

_Close your eyes_

_Breathe, breathe, slowly_

_Lay your head_

_Down in sleep,_

_I love you, _

_Child, sleep._

Her voice broke, and tears ran down her cheeks into the sleeping child's hair. He was asleep; his breathing was even, and he was scowling no longer. She looked up to see Edgar in the doorway, a pained expression on his face and a black case in his hand. Twi picked up Yu, and laid him down on his bed. Wiping her eyes with the corner of her lab coat, she walked out of the room. She shut the door so she wouldn't have to watch. She knew that Yu would wake up as soon as he felt the needle in his arm. She didn't want to hear him when he did. She leaned against the wall, and sank to the floor, sighing. She looked across the hall, and what she saw made her go on full alert. Alma was pressed against the wall, listening to what was happening inside the room. He knew. Somehow, he knew. He went over and cracked the door open, looking at Twi as if asking for permission. She didn't answer, just stood up and walked away. Alma peered in the crack in the door. Yu was sleeping on his bed. He had no idea what was about to happen to him. Dr. Edgar was rubbing the tip of the syringe with alcohol, as if the cleanliness of the needle had any effect on what it was about to do. He positioned Yu's arm, so that he could get a clear shot. Alma watched in horror, unable to move, as he slid the needle into the vein. Yu's eyes snapped open, and he looked up at him. "Dr. Edgar? What are you doing?" Edgar didn't answer. Alma saw the fear register on Yu's face. "Dr. Edgar! You can't do this! Please! Please don't do this! I never did anything to you! I promise I won't hurt you! Dr. Edgar! Dr. Edgar, PLEASE!" There was distinct hysteria in his voice. Edgar continued injecting the medicine into him, but Alma could see a look of pain and despair on his face. Yu's struggles were slowing down, becoming less frequent. His voice was getting weaker. "Please….please….Dr. Edgar, please…" Soon all motion, even the sound of his breath, came to a stop. Yu wasn't moving. Wasn't breathing. Wasn't living.

Alma burst into the room, tears streaming down his face. "Yu! Yu! YUUUUUU!" he screamed, running to his side. He didn't respond. Edgar left the room, holding his face in his hands. Alma looked around the room in a frenzy, looking for anything, anything at all, that could save Yu. His eyes rested on a case on the counter top. He ran over to it, flinging it open, and smiling at Yu's savior syringe. The syringe was labeled "Adrenaline."

He took it out of the case and ran back to Yu, taking a deep breath before plunging it right into the center of his chest.

For a moment, there was nothing.

Yu's chest heaved, and he took a huge deep breath. His eyes flew open and he coughed, trying to get air back into his lungs. He propped himself up on his elbows. "What in the name of everything sacred—" "YU! You're alive!" Alma shouted and flung his arms around the other boy's neck. Yu pushed him away. "Why did he do that? He tried to kill me. No, he did kill me! What did I do to them? Why—" he paused and looked up, silent for a while. "Oh," he murmured. "That's why. The flowers. Those memories. That woman."

Edgar came bursting in the door. "How? How are you alive? I just euthanized you!" He eyes slid to the adrenaline lying on the table. "You didn't." Alma smiled. "I'd leave, if I were you, Yu.

Yu didn't have to be told twice. He scrambled off the table and out another exit. Alma catapulted over Edgar and ran down the hall. The doctor chased after him, calling for reinforcements as he ran. They chased him into the room where they did the synchro tests. Alma had a plan. Nobody would ever hurt Yu again. As soon as almost everyone in the branch was in the room, he activated his Innocence.

Yu was almost out of the tower. He stood at the big front doors. He'd never been outside them before. He rested his palm on the handle, preparing to leave, but he stopped when he heard something from upstairs. What was that? He strained to hear it. Yes, he'd heard that before. That was the sound of a woman screaming. What was Alma doing?

He bolted back up the stairs, flinging open the door to the Synchro room. What he saw astonished him.

Alma had killed them all. He looked at Yu now with a bloodstained smile. "We can't live among such people," he whispered. There were bodies everywhere. Twi, Edgar, everyone. Dead. "What have you done…?" Yu murmured. "We can't live among such people," Alma repeated. "So we will die along with them." Startled, Yu stared at him. "Die? Why would we die?"

"Don't you see, Yu? This is the only way we'll ever be happy. If you and I both die, now. It's the only way!"

Yu backed away. "You're crazy. You've lost it, Alma. Deactivate the Innocence. We'll go to Headquarters. We'll figure something out. Stop it, Alma!" But Alma was advancing steadily towards him, the wild smile still on his face. "Activate it, Yu. Kill me, and I'll kill you. We'll be happy, I promise," he said, his voice growing stronger. "No! Alma, what are you doing? Stop! Have enough people not died already because of you?" Yu was up against the door now. There was no way around it. He activated his own Innocence.

Alma lashed out at him. Yu retaliated, blocking, parrying, and avoiding every blow. Yu's Innocence took on the form of a sword. A miracle sword, he thought when he saw it. Just when he needed it most, it took up its true form. Alma and Yu fought for what seemed like an eternity. Yu was getting tired. Alma was just getting more and more crazy.

Alma won.

He swept at him with his parasitic Innocence on his arm, cutting straight through the tattoo that was the core of Yu's regenerative capabilities. They failed. Yu sank to the ground, clutching his chest. "I told you to die with me," Alma said. "But you refused. So I had to take matters into my own hands." He took Yu's sword from him and positioned it in front of his chest. "See you soon, Yu."

Alma was tackled from the side by a huge mass of human being. Noise Marie wrenched the sword out of his hands and cast it to the side. He pinned Alma's arms behind his back and threw him to the ground. "I will not let you do this. Luckily for you, reinforcements from Headquarters are here," Marie rumbled in his deep voice. Finders and exorcists flooded into the room, checking for survivors—of which there were none—taking Alma into custody, and loading Yu onto a stretcher for transport back to Europe.

Doctors rushed the stretcher into the emergency room at Black Order headquarters. "Move! Let's move! Come on! We've got a child in critical condition! There's no time to waste! Take him into the operation room! Now! Now! Faster!" The head doctor snapped on a pair of gloves and strode into the operation room. He ran a hand along the boy's wound while the others hooked him up to the machines. His fingers rested on the tattoo. He remembered Twi telling him about this. "We've come up with a new science that will allow regeneration and self-healing in whoever bears a certain mark!" she had said. This boy must be one of her precious Second Exorcists.

The boy was still barely conscious. Conscious enough, that is, for the doctor to get a straight answer out of him when he asked him who he was. "Y-Yu. I'm Yu. Where's Al—" One of the nurses shot him with anesthetics. His head lolled to the side. The doctors immediately began work on him. They had never seen anyone live through something like this. There was a bleeding slit stretching from his shoulder to his chest, all the way through, like it had been sawed through. They tried to stitch the muscle back together, and bind the bones so they would regrow. But no matter how hard they tried, they could not stop the boy from bleeding.

"Flat line! We have a flat line!"  
>"Doctor! We're losing him!"<p>

"One, two three, CLEAR!"

"Don't die on me kid!"

"Get me the adrenaline! Stat!"

"That won't work, Doctor."

"Get the other kid in here. I want him to see what he's caused."

"Doctor, he isn't breathing! Should we hook him up to a support system?"

"Clean cloths and bandages! We have to stop this bleeding!"

"Anyone willing to be a blood donor, right now?"

"What type?"

"A-negative!"

"It's too late, Doctor."

"We have to save this kid!"

"Look! That tattoo on his chest is glowing!"

"Does that mean he's getting better?"

"Now it's fading…"

"Where's his Innocence?"

"Gone, sir. Marie said it just disintegrated."

"Where are those bandages?"

"We're out, sir!"

"Then use your shirts! We have to keep him alive!"

"Should I sign him up for the Third Exorcists program?"

It was silent in the operation room, except for the long monotone ringing. The doctor removed his blood-stained gloves and threw them on the table. He took off his cap and hurled it to the floor, shouting in frustration. The rest of the medical staff removed their hats and put their hands to their chests, heads bowed. Through it all, there stood Alma Karma, on the other side of the glass, pounding and screaming. "Yu!"

They didn't cremate his body. Since he was so young and had no family to speak of, they buried him in a casket shrouded in purple, in the ground just outside and off to the side of the entrance to Headquarters. They marked his grave with a simple stone cross, reading, "Yu Kanda. June 6, 1887-August 23, 1890. He is in death as he was in life—loved." Every month Alma Karma, who went on to become a full-fledged Exorcist of the Black Order, put fresh flowers by the headstone. Always lotus blossoms. Nine years later, exorcist Allen Walker would come to Headquarters for the first time, and would see this grave, wondering who Yu Kanda was, and if, had he lived, they could have been friends.


End file.
